


kaivalya

by AllegoriesInMediasRes



Series: Ramayana fics [7]
Category: Ramayana - Valmiki
Genre: Alternate Character Interpretation, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Gen, Incomplete, More characters to be added, WIP, Will Update Rarely
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-27
Updated: 2018-09-27
Packaged: 2019-07-18 10:47:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16116821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllegoriesInMediasRes/pseuds/AllegoriesInMediasRes
Summary: One forgotten vanara queen escapes and never suffers in captivity at the hands of a cruel king. Her salvation is another imprisoned woman’s downfall. AU where Ruma flees into exile as well and Sugriva refuses to ally himself with Rama.kaivalya (Sanksrit): perfect isolation





	kaivalya

**Author's Note:**

> I have renamed Ruma to Umika in this fic, to avoid confusion with Rama’s name. Since she’s an unknown character, I don’t think it’ll ruffle anyone’s feathers!

Umika escapes. Umika flees with Sugriva when Vali comes storming back, still stained with Dundubhi’s blood and ready to believe the worst of his brother. She lives as a free woman on Mount Rishyamuk in exile rather than a prisoner in the palace of Kishkindha. She never suffers at the hands of Vali, and her escape proves to be this saga’s undoing.

“I am infinitely grateful to you, of course, for bringing my wife’s jewels to me and telling me where she is, but I am afraid I cannot interfere with how another king rules his country,” is Rama’s smooth reply when Sugriva has related his own struggles and broaches the possibility of an alliance. 

“But--” Jambavant is indignant. “He assumed the worst of his own brother, a prince of the kingdom, and had him thrown out without so much as a trial!”

“And why should he have given the benefit of the doubt to a younger brother who locked him up in a cave?” Lakshman snaps back. Umika vaguely remembers hearing of the rivalry between the younger princes of Ayodhya, and it seems nearly fourteen years in exile have not quelled Lakshman’s instinctive mistrust for any younger brother who so much as breathes in his older brother’s direction the wrong way. Rama raises a warning eyebrow, but the son of Sumitra does not subside. 

“What a stroke of luck it must have been, to just glibly fill his shoes and steal away his kingdom and his wife?” 

Sugriva’s voice is heavy with desperation and anger. “I will have you know that Queen Tara of Kishkindha has never been anything less than willing, and such a wise and noble woman cannot simply be ‘stolen’ away.”

“But you are safe here, from his reach, with your wife and your closest friends, while he rules the kingdom that is his by birthright,” Rama breaks in, steering the conversation back to morality — the only lens through which he seems to view the world. “It may have been unfair, but it was nothing less than dharma _. _ ”

“Vali would have had his way with me and held me prisoner, just as your own wife languishes across the sea in the hold of a demon now.” Fear sharpens Umika’s tone, fears that have haunted her in the dead of night. “Is it dharma, to allow such a man to rest on a throne?”

“But he did not, and dharma does not concern itself with ‘what if’.” She knew Rama trades a kingdom for a forest in the name of dharma, but is he so myopic as to expect everyone else to think the same way? “King Vali rules Kishkindha as is his right, and you, Prince Sugriva, must obey his command.”

“Then begone.” Foolish of her, perhaps, to presume to speak for her husband, and to antagonize such a powerful player as the jewel of the Raghu house, but Umika has never been a Queen. That was Tara, always Tara. She is a woman, an outcast, who longs for something more than wild jungles and caves, who rages on her husband’s behalf and wants her home back. “Let dharma be your vimana and guide you away from our abode.”

She slaps the torn  _ pallu  _ with its jewels into their palms. “Do not show your faces here again. I need not remind you that Sage Matang has a penchant for cursing eldest sons and their dharmic streaks.”

The brothers swing their bows over their shoulders and leave without a word. “That was not wise, Umika,” Sugriva murmurs, as he guides her to a seat hewn by her own hands. “Threats don’t serve anyone. And think of the innocent Lady Sita, who suffers.”

“Her brave husband and brother-in-law will save her,” Umika says bitterly. “And what could we do, ragtag exiles that we are with neither home nor kingdom nor army? No, my husband, we must focus on our own troubles, rather than those that an insufferable saint creates for himself.”

**Author's Note:**

> So this is the beginning of an AU where Sugriva and Rama do not make an alliance, therefore Rama’s on his own when it comes to Sita, and instead seeks out Vali. Vali being of a similar mold as Ravana, this greatly changes Rama’s approach to rescuing her, though how exactly I haven’t figured out yet. Tara and Umika also swap roles a bit, as canonically, Tara hates Rama while Umika is (presumably) grateful to him for helping rescue her. This time around, it’s Umika with the grudge while the door is open for a partnership if not friendship between Tara and Rama! 
> 
> This AU will update rarely if at all, as this opening turning point is the only bit I have down for sure.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [sahasa](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16282181) by [AllegoriesInMediasRes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllegoriesInMediasRes/pseuds/AllegoriesInMediasRes)




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